Horse braiding patents: Any help I can get

Here is a closeup of Riley's braids for the last horse show we attended -- did'em myself at 3am, and he was not very cooperative to boot! Riley's usual offensive tactic against braiders is extreme mouthiness. On a whim, I pulled a brand new, never-used cribbing muzzle out of my tack box, and vecro-ed it to his halter. Once Riley realized his teeth and lips were useless, he fell into a trance, waking every five minutes or so to attempt the nip/nudge game again. I had him done in under an hour, about an hour ahead of schedule. God love the inventor of the cribbing muzzle.

God love the inventors
God love the inventors of all equine gadgets! While I was at work the other evening (evening desk shift), I helped a client search for U.S. patents. Afterward, tried a few keyword searches for horse braiding-related patents. Ruthann Smith's braiding tool is patented -- to me it hardly seems worth patenting, but hey, she can really braid, and she's making a good living.

Here are a few interesting ones...

Pre-braided horse tail (patented by Lisa Penge, Gloversville NY)
Here's an interesting one that I think has lurked in the subconscious of every hunter rider (except George Morris)...



Horse mane unbraider (patented by Karin Flint, Bloomfield Hills, MI)

And here's one that seems like it'd be pretty handy. I've never seen one for sale but it looks like the D-braider...



Now someone just needs to invent the "press-apply hunter braids"!